Stephen Pleasonton - Relationship With Winslow Lewis

Relationship With Winslow Lewis

Also typical of Pleasonton's bureaucratic dealings was the relationship with Winslow Lewis. Lewis, a sometime engineer and inventor, had previously developed a new lighting system and won monopoly contracts for their use and the supply of Spermaceti oil in American lighthouses along the east coast. Pleasonton agreed to their continuing use, primarily because he viewed it as cost-effective. The system had its detractors, however, including the brothers Blunt, publishers of the American Coast Pilot; they received many irate letters from various mariners, which they forwarded to Pleasonton. Furthermore, although Augustin Fresnel had developed his revolutionary system of lenses in 1820, Pleasonton refused to sanction their use, viewing them as too expensive. He preferred to remain with Lewis' system, claiming that it was adequate for lighting the American coast.

According to Robert Browning, chief historian of the United States Coast Guard, it is possible that Pleasanton continued to rely on Lewis’s lamps instead of adopting Fresnel lenses due to the nature of the existing lighthouses. Evidence exists that with the Earth’s curvature, the Fresnel lenses would have proved no better than Lewis's paraboloid lamps due to the low height of the lighthouse towers themselves; because of these factors, lights could only be seen a short distance.

In the end, it was Pleasonton's refusal to consider Fresnel's system that proved his downfall. This, coupled with his support for Lewis' outdated methods, led to further investigations by Congress; eventually, the United States Lighthouse Board was formed to remove Pleasonton's influence from the system altogether.

Pleasonton was 78 years old when he died on January 31, 1855. He is buried in Congressional Cemetery.